Jean-Luc Verna

A graduate of the Villa Arson, Jean-Luc Verna lives and works in Paris. A protean artist (whose production encompasses drawing, photography, ceramics, sculpture and performance), his works have been acquired by major public and private collections (MoMA New York, Centre Pompidou, Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, etc.). He has been a dancer for Gisèle Vienne and an onlooker for Crowd. He played an actress in Brice Dellsperger’s Body double film series as well as making a cinema appearance in a film by Patrick Chiha. He has also performed in theatre, namely in Paul Desvaux’s staging of Diane Arbus Self Portrait, as well as being the lead singer of the bands I Apologize and Jukebox Babe. He also sang with Jonathan Capdevielle and Jérôme Marin on their cabarets. He is an author and director (Carcasse), the choreographer of his company SATB (whose most recent production is Uccello, Uccellacci and The Birds). Jean-Luc Verna has been represented by the Air de Paris gallery for over thirty years and he teaches drawing at the École nationale supérieure d’arts de Paris-Cergy.

Ma chanson de gestes
As an extension of a dance piece and photographic research initiated twenty years ago by Jean-Luc Verna, the participants will combine high and low cultures by choosing poses taken from the history of art (Eastern, Western, African) and mixing them with poses from a popular culture. In this way, scholarly culture will blend with vernacular culture. The colours of the transitions from one pose to another will also be significant. At the end of the workshop, each participant presents a three-minute self-portrait, the sum of their research.